The best community colleges provide an effective springboard into higher education, offering students high-quality two-year degree programs in a wide range of disciplines. The top rated community colleges offer a broad selection of associate’s degrees, affordable tuition rates, and strong partnerships with public four-year schools so that students can easily transfer their credits into accredited bachelor’s degree programs.
A community college is a public two-year college that awards associate degrees as well as some professional certifications. Community colleges typically attract students drawn from the surrounding region. Top community colleges tend to offer a wide selection of associate degrees spanning a variety of disciplines. Community colleges can be especially attractive to students interested in getting an affordable start on a four-year degree. So too, these schools appeal to students seeking professional two-year degrees designed to provide technical and practical skills for immediate entrance into the job market.
We’ve identified 839 community colleges in the US. In order to be included in this list of the best community colleges, a school needs must be fully accredited, and must primarily provide two-year, or associate, degree programs (along with certificate credentials in most cases).
Tuition + fees
$1K
Graduation
43%
Student body
19K
Pasadena City College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$1K
Graduation
25%
Student body
9K
Los Angeles City College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$1K
Graduation
37%
Student body
14K
City College of San Francisco’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$2K
Graduation
65%
Student body
14K
De Anza College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$1K
Graduation
26%
Student body
13K
Sacramento City College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$5K
Graduation
12%
Student body
49K
Lone Star College System’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Graduation
27%
Student body
7K
Anne Arundel Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$1K
Graduation
42%
Student body
10K
Santa Barbara City College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$3K
Graduation
16%
Student body
22K
Collin College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$10K
Graduation
22%
Student body
15K
College of DuPage’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$6K
Graduation
12%
Student body
13K
Macomb Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$1K
Graduation
33%
Student body
14K
Fullerton College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$5K
Graduation
19%
Student body
6K
Bronx Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$6K
Graduation
9%
Student body
15K
Blinn College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$1K
Graduation
34%
Student body
8K
Chabot College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
35%
Student body
3K
East Mississippi Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$6K
Graduation
29%
Student body
30K
Northern Virginia Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$10K
Graduation
28%
Student body
14K
Montgomery College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$12K
Graduation
23%
Student body
5K
Malcolm X College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
24%
Student body
13K
Cuyahoga Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$13K
Graduation
29%
Student body
4K
ASA College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$1K
Graduation
31%
Student body
17K
American River College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$2K
Graduation
14%
Student body
10K
Glendale Community College ’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$7K
Acceptance
41%
Graduation
46%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
1054/19
Tuition + fees
$5K
Graduation
20%
Student body
16K
Portland Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$2K
Graduation
18%
Student body
12K
Mesa Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$1K
Graduation
31%
Student body
14K
Palomar College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$3K
Graduation
27%
Student body
14K
San Jacinto College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$1K
Graduation
42%
Student body
13K
Orange Coast College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$7K
Graduation
22%
Student body
11K
San Antonio College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$1K
Graduation
21%
Student body
4K
Merritt College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$5K
Graduation
32%
Student body
11K
LaGuardia Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$5K
Graduation
35%
Student body
9K
Kingsborough Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$1K
Graduation
31%
Student body
12K
Los Angeles Pierce College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$1K
Graduation
44%
Student body
13K
Saddleback College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$2K
Graduation
21%
Student body
17K
Long Beach City College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$6K
Graduation
24%
Student body
3K
Central Oregon Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
26%
Student body
17K
Salt Lake Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$5K
Graduation
20%
Student body
5K
Weatherford College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$1K
Graduation
30%
Student body
7K
Cabrillo College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$19K
Acceptance
91%
Graduation
20%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
855/17
Manor College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$1K
Graduation
37%
Student body
11K
Santa Rosa Junior College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Graduation
16%
Student body
10K
Community College of Allegheny County’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
25%
Student body
3K
Angelina College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$2K
Graduation
15%
Student body
6K
Phoenix College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$1K
Graduation
33%
Student body
18K
East Los Angeles College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Graduation
23%
Student body
1K
Cecil College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
18%
Student body
9K
Joliet Junior College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
48%
Student body
5K
Lee College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
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Many of our 2022 undergraduate focused rankings look considerably different than 2021. That’s because we took a fundamentally different apporach. For 2021 we utiulized our Concentrated Influence algorithm, designed to take away the size advantage larger schools have when we rank their faculty and alumni’s academic influence. Concentrated influence highlights smaller schools that are proportionally as successful as larger universities at cultivating influential alumni and faculty.
Photo Credit: Pasadena City College, By Michael Wu, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
